A Study of Health-Promoting Behaviors of Medical Sciences Students of Islamic Azad University of Sari, Iran 2013

Background and Health-promoting activities and a healthy lifestyle are major strategies to preserve health. The purpose of this research study, health-promoting behaviors of medical sciences student of Islamic Azad University of Sari, Iran, was carried out in order to determine the compliance and to promote the medical community. This was a cross-sectional study conducted on 285 university students, School of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran, who were selected using stratified random sampling. Tools for data collection questionnaire were health-promoting lifestyle profile-II, which includes two main categories of health behaviors and psychosocial health of six sub-categories. Data were entered into the SPSS statistical software and for analysis, Friedman and One-sample test was used. Of the six dimensions of health-promoting behaviors, spiritual growth, averaging 25.11 ± 4.57 most, and the area of physical activity with a mean 18.33 ± 4.40 was the lowest score accounted in this study. The results of Freidman test showed that the ranking of dimensions (aspects) are as following: 1 - personnel inter-relationship; 2 - spiritual growth; 3 - nutrition; 4 - management stress; 5 - health responsibility; and 6 - physical activity. The finding was shown that doing the facilitator behavior and health promotion in the students are at the acceptable level. Furthermore, the terms of personnel inter-relationship, spiritual growth, nutrition, and stress management are at the important level of health promotion aspects. Regarding the above situations of health-promoting behaviors for health education programs among medical group students is recommended.